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Abstract

Herpes simplex virus type 1(HSV-1) presents a conundrum to public health worldwide because of its specific pathogenicity and clinical features. Some experimental vaccines, such as the recombinant viral glycoproteins, exhibit the viral immunogenicity of a host-specific immune response, but none of these has achieved a valid epidemiological protective efficacy in the human population. In the present study, we constructed an attenuated HSV-1 strain M3 through the partial deletion of UL7, UL41, and the latency-associated transcript (LAT) using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The mutant strain exhibited lowered infectivity and virulence in macaques. Neutralization testing and ELISpot detection of the specific T-cell responses confirmed the specific immunity induced by M3 immunization and this immunity defended against the challenges of the wild-type strain and restricted the entry of the wild-type strain into the trigeminal ganglion. These results in rhesus macaques demonstrated the potential of the attenuated vaccine for the prevention of HSV-1 in humans.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).